Southard is in his 22nd year as Director of Athletic Media Relations at the Coast Guard Academy.

He oversees the day-to-day publicity of the Bears 25 intercollegiate sports, maintains the department’s website, coordinates all the audio and video broadcasting of Bears athletic events over the internet as well as the football teams local radio broadcasting package.

Southard, a cornerstone of the Coast Guard Academy Department of Athletics, is the longest tenured Media Relations professional in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) and is the First Vice President of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Sports Information Directors Association (ECAC-SIDA).

His career began as sports information director at Albertus Magnus College in 1993 where he worked for one year before being named the assistant sports information director at his alma mater, Southern Connecticut State University in 1994 before coming to the Academy in the summer of 1995.

Southard, a native of Seymour, Connecticut, holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Southern Connecticut State University, where he worked in the sports information office for four years.

He has been a part of the media relations staff at several NCAA championship events including numerous NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Regionals and three NCAA Division I Women’s Final Fours as well as the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.

Southard has also worked eight NCAA Division I Men’s Final Fours as a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) convention staff handling public relations for events throughout the week such as the Reese’s College All-Star Game and the Allstate/NABC Good Works Team Special Olympics Clinic.

He is a fixture at several Connecticut sporting events as he is in his 14th season as a member of the game day media relations staff for the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA, being with the team since they moved the franchise to Mohegan Sun.

Southard is also a statistician for the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) boys and girls basketball championships, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tipoff tournament each year at the Mohegan Sun Arena and the Cancun Challenge in Mexico.

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